April f 1948 can be cnsidered a great mnth in cinematgraphy. Arch f Triumph by Lewis Milestne came ut. It is based n the famus nvel by Erich Maria Remarque and is a delightful wartime lve stry. While The End f the Affair is set in Lndn under bmbardment f the V-1s, Arch f Triumph is a nvel set in Paris. Paris was nt bmbarded, and in the nvel there is n sign f ppressin f any kind. War was just a minr nuisance fr the French. Life went n as if nthing had happened.
The tw nvels share the rainy, misty stratsphere f the city in the night, the nstalgic air f lve Humphrey Bgart in trench, with a cigarette hanging frm his muth, tempting Rita Heywrth sitting n a high bar stl, a perfect redhead vamp, albeit als with the cigarette stuck t the lng pipette This is the classic lve stry and anyne wh reads it, will never frget it fr the rest f her r his life. I might add that yu will start t feel an unusual desire t g t a small Paris bistr and rder a few shts f calvads. This apple vdka drink is ne f the trademarks f lve affair in this bk. nce again, directr Lewis Milestne adapts the wrk f Erich Maria Remarque, whse WWI nvel. Arch f Triumph was the secnd pairing fr Byer and Ingrid Bergman. Taken frm the best-selling nvel by Erich Maria Remarque, the film is a dark, grim drama f desperate times and equally desperate peple. Enterprise Pictures, the prductin cmpany, used a favrite Hllywd ply – they tld Bergman they had Byer, they tld Byer they had Bergman; neither culd refuse, s Enterprise gt bth. Fr the third star there was Charles Laughtn, in the deliciusly disgusting part f a Gestap fficial. The stry takes place in Paris f 1938.
The Essay on Louvre and Paris
It is more often than not that we look at Paris for its beauty vacation destination attraction than for what it truly is, a place enriched with amazing history. A place that is to often looked at for its beauty, not its meaning. The establishment of Paris is astounding with it being 2000 years old. Initially known at Lutetia, it was conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 B. C. The French kings who ...
Byer plays Ravic, a surgen and displaced refugee frm the Nazis wh illegally practices his prfessin while cnstantly evading deprtatin. Usually devid f all emtin in the interest f survival, Ravic is suddenly catapulted int murderus rage when he spts his Nazi nemesis Haake (Laughtn) at a street cafe, and begins t plt Haake’s demise. Hwever, when Ravic meets Jan Madu, (Bergman) a drifter and cafe singer, he is drawn int a bittersweet lve affair with her. She ffers him new hpe…until he is apprehended by the French plice and deprted. In despair, and believing Ravic will never return, Jan takes up with a rich playby. The situatin ges frm bad t wrse when Ravic des return after several mnths – and Jan is trn between her lve fr him and her craving fr the luxurius lifestyle her admirer has made pssible.
Charles Laughtn called the film a tragedy relieved by heavy dses f glm and gd hnest tedium. Well, it is nt that bad – several scenes between Byer and Bergman are very gd indeed – but given the cast and the stry’s rigin, it is disappinting in that it des nt reach its ptential. ne f the interests in this film lies in sme f the incidental details. The leads spend a lt f time drinking calvads, the Nrman apple brandy. Hwever, accrding t the film, it is nly sld in cheap, lw-class salns. Vive le tabac parisien! References t intxicating liqurs d abund here; that wuld seem t be a preccupatin f the scenarists. Many peple enjy films set in France because it can be amusing waiting fr the inevitable full-size alchl ad t pp up n a wall in the backgrund.
This time it was fr Byrrh, a very unusual chice. The films indifferent scre is by Luis Gruenberg. Gruenberg is best knwn – if yu can call it that – fr his pera The Emperr Jnes, based n the ‘Neill play. It premiered at rughly the same time as the film versin starring Paul Rbesn. The pera survives tday in a recrding r tw by Lawrence Tibbett. It shuld surface again sn thugh; they are running ut f ptentially marketable peras t revive.
pera seems an apprpriate subject t mentin here since Charles Byers character perates under his Czech aliases. Tw f them are Wzzeck and Gunther, bth prminent rles in German pera. Is that just cincidence? Name-drpping just seems t be part f this film. Ntice that they call up Himmelstss n the phne. Himmelstss happens t be ne f the main characters in Remarques earlier All Quiet n the Western Frnt. Arch f Triumph is favrite Hllywd mvie frm the classic era fr many peple. Unfrtunately, ver the years this ne has garnered verwhelmingly pr-t-middling reviews.
The Term Paper on Film Journal
1. How does Hitchcock introduce us to the two principle characters? Where do the scenes take place and how is the camera placed? In the case of Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), her father’s prison sentence leaves her skeptical of others, yet longing for a new companion in her life. She has a reliance on alcohol to wash her troubles away. R. Devlin’s (Cary Grant) a stranger from the party, a very ...
Its detractrs generally fall back upn tw basic pints: that the acting is self-cnsciusly stiff, and that Charles Byer and Ingrid Bergman d nt get tgether n screen. In sme respects, this criticism is justified. n the ther hand, whether intentinal r therwise, the stiltedness f the acting and the lack f emtinal fire between the tw stars is perfect fr cnveying the sense f verwhelming alienatin that is the true subject f this mvie. This mvie is perhaps the mst unremittingly dark Hllywd picture that was ever filmed. The majrity f its scenes ccur at night, and in them it is frequently raining. The ne ntewrthy exceptin, in marked cntrast t the rest f the picture, is wing t the sterile white brightness f the perating rm in which Charles Byer’s character, an immigrant physician prevented by the French plice frm legitimately practicing his prfessin, secretly tends t the hpeless results f a btched abrtin. The ther literally bright sequence in this mvie – inserted at the insistence f Ingrid Bergman herself in rder t alleviate its rampant glminess – features Bergman and Byer, as lvers, n the beach in the Suth f France.
Hwever, verall it cmes ff as smething f an irrelevancy t the subtly mdulated darkness f the rest f the picture, and after a while yu will simply just learn t fast frward ver it. In shrt, fr thse f yu wh quite ften experience what Herman Melville called a dark Nvember f the Sul, this film might very well be just what the dctr – r the devil – rdered. Bibligraphy: The Magic Windw: American Televisin, 1939-1953 by James Vn Schilling (Hawrth Press, 2002) www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia.
